Ruffeys Rancheria: A History of Unoccupied Federal Fee Land at Etna, California, 1907-1960 A Report Commissioned by the Karuk Tribe Stephen Dow Beckham, Ph.D. May 2018 Introduction This report was researched and written at the request of the Tribal Council of the Karuk Tribe of Happy Camp and Yreka, California. The focus of the report was to examine the history of Ruffeys Rancheria, the individuals, families, bands, and tribes associated with that property and nearby Etna, and the testimony submitted on behalf of H.R. 3535, Ruffeys Rancheria Restoration Act (2017). H.R. 3535 proposes to restore a “government-to-government relationship” between the United States and Ruffeys Rancheria. I had prior knowledge of the history of Indian affairs in Siskiyou County. My research on tribal relations in the Klamath watershed commenced in 1964 and led to the book Requiem For a People: The Rogue Indians and the Frontiersmen (1972). Subsequently I served as expert witness for the Karuk Tribe in the U.S. Claims Court in Karuk Tribe v. United States, Docket No. 90-3993-L (1989- 1997). I researched and wrote “The Karuk Tribe of California: Federal Relationships, Termination, and Restoration” (2004) submitted to the National Indian Gaming Commission. I also researched and wrote “The Karuk Tribe: Indian Residency and Tribal Presence in Siskiyou County, California, 1910-2005" (2005), a report used in litigation in the federal district court, District of Columbia, over the entitlement of the Karuk Tribe to engage in gaming on tribal lands in Yreka, California. Under contract from the U.S. Department of the Interior, I researched and wrote Historical Landscape Overview of the Upper Klamath River Canyon Oregon and California published in 2006. In 2011-12 I was appointed to the Scientific Review Panel, Department of the Interior, to assess the technical reports on the projected removal of four dams owned by Pacificorp, a subsidiary of Berkshire- Hathaway, Inc. These dams are located in Siskiyou County, California, and Klamath County, Oregon. I carried out the primary research for this report at National Archives, San Bruno, California. I extend my appreciation to John Seamens for expediting access to the records of the Roseburg Superintendency, Greenville School, and the Sacramento Area Office as well as the affidavits for the Enrollment of California Indians, 1928-1933. I have also drawn on my previous research files, on-line census records, and other materials for this report. Stephen Dow Beckham, Ph.D. Pamplin Professor of History Emeritus Lewis & Clark College 1389 SW Hood View Lane Lake Oswego, Oregon 97035-1505 1 Overview “There is no there.” Gertrude Stein, Everybody’s Autobiography (1937) H.R. 3535 is an intellectually dishonest bill. It purports to restore a government-to-government relationship between Ruffeys Rancheria and the United States. In 2018 Ruffeys Rancheria is not federal fee land; it is not Indian tribal trust land; and it is not an Indian reservation. The property is fee land owned by the International Paper Company of Memphis, Tennessee. No Indian ever lived on Ruffeys Rancheria. The property is a rough, mountainous, forested hillside located approximately one mile south of Etna, California. The following report examines the history of this property from 1907 to 1960. The Central Pacific Railroad sold the land in 1907 to the United States ostensibly as a home for two groups or bands of “Karok or Adatars Stock” Indians residing near Etna. Special Indian Agent Charles W. Kelsey had visited Scott Valley in 1905 or 1906 and found these landless people in conflict with their Euro-American neighbors. When Charles Ritz put a chain around Old Man Ruffey’s house and attempted to drag it off his property, Ruffey attempted to shoot his neighbor. Friends restrained Ruffey and Kelsey bought 441 acres. Neither of the houses of Old Man Ruffey nor Pete Ruffey, however, were on the rancheria nor were they moved to that property. This report documents the chasm between the testimony submitted on behalf of H.R. 3535 and the history of Ruffeys Rancheria. The report identifies the individuals and families on the Special Agent Kelsey’s lists of 1905 and 1913 and their numerous descendants enrolled in the Karuk Tribe. The report concludes with a summary of the total absence of measures of tribal relationships with the United States. The conclusion raises troubling, unanswered questions in the testimony of Tahj E. Gomes on September 26, 2017, in the hearing before the House Committee considering this bill. 2 Contents “There are no residents on the rancheria since Roy Abernathy moved to Etna after the bridge that provided access to his home across Mill Creek was washed out.” Kenneth E. Engelbretson, “Report on Ruffeys Rancheria,” 1958 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 1 Overview .......................................................................................................... 2 Contents .......................................................................................................... 3 List of Tables ..................................................................................................... 4 List of Figures .................................................................................................... 5 Landless California Indians .................................................................................... 6 California Treaty Commission, 1851-52 ................................................................... 6 Report of Charles W. Kelsey, 1906 ...................................................................... 10 Findings of Fact ............................................................................................. 17 Ruffeys Rancheria History .................................................................................... 20 Etna Indian Family Histories ................................................................................. 33 Ruffey/Abernathy Family ................................................................................. 33 Burcell/Purcell Family ..................................................................................... 37 Conclusions .................................................................................................. 45 Bibliography .................................................................................................... 51 Appendix A: H.R. 3535 ........................................................................................ 59 Appendix B Testimony of Tahj Gomes before House Subcommittee on Indian, Insular, and Alaska Native Affairs, 9/26/17 .............................................................................. 70 3 List of Tables Table 1- Select Indian Groups, Siskiyou County, 1905-06 ................................................................... 11 Table 2- Indian Population, Etna and Etna District, 1900 ................................................................... 12 Table 3- Indians of Karok or Adatars Stock at Etna, 1905-06 ............................................................. 13 Table 4- Indian Population, Etna and Etna District, 1910 ................................................................... 14 Table 5- Indian Population, Etna and Etna District, 1913 ................................................................... 15 Table 6- Indian Population, Etna Mills, 1915 ......................................................................................... 15 Table 7- Timber on Ruffeys Rancheria, July, 1959 ............................................................................... 29 4 List of Figures Figure 1- Ruffeys Rancheria and nearby Etna in southern Scott Valley (Bureau of Indian Affairs n.d.). ............................................................................................................................................................ 19 Figure 2- Ruffeys Rancheria showing spring and pipeline of Norman................................................ 23 Figure 3- Map of Ruffeys Rancheria showing spring and adjacent fee owners (l to r): E. Kepp, F. Kepp, Norman Marvin, Various non-Indian owners, Rodney Gregg, Roy J. Abernathy (Duchene 1953b). ......................................................................................................................................................... 25 Figure 4- “Type Map of Ruffeys Rancheria” (Engelbretson 1958b). .................................................. 28 Figure 5- Tommy Ruffey (1872-1936), Folsom Prison, 1930 (California Prison and Correctional Records n.d.) ............................................................................................................................................... 34 5 Landless California Indians California was a prize of the Mexican War (1846-48) and was ceded by Mexico in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848). Discovery of gold in the Sierra foothills in January of that year proved singularly disruptive to the Indians of California as well as to the orderly development of American governing institutions. For a time the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy were the stabilizing powers. In 1849 more than 100,000 new residents poured in overland and by sea and on September 9, 1850, California catapulted to statehood. The state thus was never formally organized as a territory under the Ordinance of 1789. Its native peoples had no guarantees of “utmost good faith” embedded in the Ordinance that created